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Our Legaback and a Jeep Grand Cherokee ... head-to-head. Both lose.

The Pretty one, who has been on a four/ten schedule, so she can do all day women's ski clinic on Wednesdays, was kissed goodbye at 06:30 on her way to work, off into a fairly substantial snowfall.

I finished my coffee, started the Barbie Jeep to warm it up (it lives outside) showered, and as I was getting dressed, answered the phone."Hello, is this Mr. Smith, (ALERT!-ALERT!-ALERT!), This is officer Mahony, I have your wife's cell phone, she needs to speak with you." Well, you can probably figure out the rest. I was being called from an intersection in Kalispell, as my lovely wife lay in the front seat of a passerby's pickup waiting for an ambulance.

Seems that she and a young lady entered an intersection, both at the end of a yellow light, and both afraid to hit the brakes, for fear of skidding on the slush. Unfortunately, the young lady entered into a left turn across the bows of 'Honu', our long serving 2000 Roo BEFORE she realized she couldn't stop.

I arrived at the scene at the same time The Pretty One was being backboarded into the ambulance. Both cars (the Subaru and the opposition, a Jeep Grand Cherokee were totalled ... traffic was snarled for a block (small town) in both directions (I drove in the bike lane to the scene). I kissed her, and watched the ambulance haul her off to the ER and worked with the other driver, the police, the other driver's Dad, and the tow truck driver until the mess was cleaned up, the papers exchanged, and condolences (but no admissions) were exchanged all around. No citations were issued for either driver.

The upshot is a broken sternum, multiple contusions, abraisions, and bruises from the airbag deployment and a night in the hospital for observation for The Pretty One. This is after a three hour stint in the ER, and an additional two hour wait for a bed.

The young lady was unhurt, since her car was bigger, and took the impact on the oblique, so the energy was dissaped in spinning. The Subaru, on the other hand, went from 40 mph to zero in very few feet. The young driver was so distraught that The Pretty One called her over to pray with her. Later, the young lady and her Mom came by the hospital room with flowers, a card and thanks for her safety.

By the evening The Pretty One was stabile, coping with the pain (and medication induced nausia) fed, and on the way to a reasonable night's recuperation. She's now home and sleeping well, eating and generally in good spirits ... except for the fact that THIS is her ski day, it's snowing out, the slopes are perfect, and she's hors' de combat.

I'll take a couple of family days to help her get around the house. We retrieved our personal effects from the now-dead 'Roo 'Honu', and got a replacement car. Last Wed. we had picked Honu up from the local dealership, having just nstalled a new 60 month battery and spent $600.00 in preventive T-belt maintainance in preperation for the next 100,000 miles ... we even did the T-belt 12,000 miles early 'cause SOA had a $329.00 special ... Oh well. Like I told my loved one, you car died doing it's job to the end, deploying airbags and ratcheting the shoulder belt up tight. The shoulder belt is what broke her sternum, and severly bruised her hips.

Winter package, studded Hakkapilatas on seperate alloys, hitch, excellent condition. Our neighbot hated it! He finally bought a Subaru because we raved on them, but he has always driven Suburbans, and felt threatened in a small car. So a few months ago he parked it in the garage and went back to his ten year old Suburban. When I asked if he had sold the 'Roo he cut us a great deal. Only thing it needs is a remote starter, and since it DOESN'T have an alarm/security system, I can do that before next winter.A scary event, but with a good outcome, except for car payments, which we weren't contemplating.

On another note:
my bro-in-law recently sold his VW Golf for an SUV. His reason? He didn't feel "safe" in the Golf after witnessing an accident between and SUV and a truck (neither of which was being driven safely, BTW). Turns out the SUV he got (Yukon) has a worse crash rating than the Golf :-\

Smitty,Carla just told me you were in and what happened. That sucks. I hope this is a wake up call to those of us who drive in adverse conditions,slow down. If I can do anything for the two of you let me know.
John

I think the Soob should have done a little more in the way of protecting her, it doesn't look as beat up as it should to me.:-\

Yeah, she'll be OK, feeling pretty low now. I think a lot of her distress is coming down from the hospital pain meds ... withdrawal from legal drug abuse. She may bet to finish up the ski seaspn after all (so long as she doesn't fall).

If you don't think poor Honu looked beat up enough, you should seen under the hood! Oh well, no more looing at false CELs.

I'm very happy the other half is doing well. Been there done that with the broken sternum.
It's amazing how tough cars really are. Remind me to tell you my 1979 civic crash story some time (hence the broken sternum). It involves a car witha nun as a drivers ed instructer .....